Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Berger's (All the Way to Lhasa: A Tale from Tibet) winsome tale introduces a bunny born blue, who's part archetype, part preschooler. Thunder Bunny is different, all right. Old Granny says that Thunder Bunny "came out of the blue," and when the heroine avows "I came from the sky," her siblings scoff. This precipitates an adventure aloft. Thunder Bunny connects with the natural elements that perennially pique children's curiosity-wind, clouds, thunder and lightning, sun and moon. While brave Thunder Bunny rides the raging storm, proclaiming (in crystal-clear homage to Sendak's In the Night Kitchen), "I am the blue and the blue is me!" her family "huddled and cuddled" below in a warren carved out of the hillside. Realizing that Thunder Bunny is missing, her family hunts for her, and sees "up on the hill... a glorious rabbit." As a result of her transformative quest, Thunder Bunny, with a sun aglow on her breast and a crescent moon nestled in her left ear, is now "a sun and moon bunny,/ clear and true and out of the blue,/ the blue that is always there, no matter what." Berger's pictures combine cut-paper and collage bunnies, sweetly rendered in pale pastels, with larger, torn paper elements that suggest the sky, clouds, a meadow and rain. The fluidly distilled text-with its occasional near rhyme, a child's perspective and resonant phrases such as "a cloud billowed up" and "not a whiffle of wind"-is just right. Ages 4-up. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-A sky-blue bunny wonders why she is different from her more traditionally colored siblings. Her gray granny explains that "she came out of the blue." A strong breeze begins to blow, and while the other rabbits run to their burrow to hide, Thunder Bunny jumps on the wind and lets it carry her high into the sky. When the clouds darken and block her way, she begins to dig a tunnel through them. Momentarily frightened by the rumble of thunder, she finds courage in repeating her earlier exuberant proclamation, "I am the blue and the blue is me." After the storm, she rejoins her family, now transformed into a radiant "sun and moon bunny," with a celestial image emblazoned on her chest. Berger's glowing, softly colored palette is perfectly suited to the subject matter. The torn-paper technique adds texture and drama, especially to the clouds. Children will enjoy the lovely illustrations, but the story may be unclear to them.-Robin L. Gibson, Granville Parent Cooperative Preschool, OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
There's something different about little Thunder Bunny--she is blue. In search of her true self, the wistful bunny heads to the sky where she discovers that ""I am the blue and the blue is me!"" The loose story structure may leave readers confused, but attractive pastel and cut-paper illustrations complement this tale of self-discovery. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Thunder Bunny, the youngest bunny in the bunch, came "out of the blue," as her own granny states, and is the color of the sky on a clear spring day. Different from her brown siblings, she begins to search for answers to her uniqueness, finally concluding, "I came from the sky." With a "jump on the wind," she is carried through a thunderstorm up to the sun and moon, returning back to the meadow not "only a bunny now . . . a sun and moon bunny, / clear and true out of the blue." Thunder Bunny has physically changed with a glorious yellow halo on her chest, signifying . . . what? Berger leaves a very open-ended situation in this bizarre, esoteric story, which provides an inexplicable and unsatisfying conclusion to a common theme of sporting self-confidence and self-esteem in spite of being different. Berger's beautifully soft pastels on torn and cut paper add a pleasing aesthetic quality, but on the whole, the reader is left as baffled as the bunnies with mama exclaiming, "Oh, my." (Picture book. 4-6) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
